Interstitial lung disease is a group of rare lung diseases in infants and children. These diseases can cause progressive scarring of lung tissue over time, and can also reduce the capability and efficacy of the lungs to transfer oxygen into the bloodstream. Infants and children who suffer blood oxygen levels outside of normal ranges due to these and other similar diseases are often affected with health complications such as stunted growth and pulmonary hypertension. The medical needs of infants and children affected with these diseases vary with the severity of the disease, but in most cases infants and children benefit from systems that provide supplemental oxygen to increase blood oxygen levels. In particular, providing supplemental oxygen to patients while sleeping has been discovered to improve hemoglobin oxygen saturation levels.
Ideally, in cases where supplemental oxygen is beneficial to the patient, systems and methods for delivering oxygen in a home environment are desirable, so that the oxygen treatment can be applied on a continuing basis and not require special visits to a medical facility. Methods of delivering oxygen in the home environment exist; the nasal cannula delivery system and the oxygen mask delivery system are both known in the industry. In addition, oxygen tents and oxygen hoods are known in the industry, although their use is limited to primarily hospital settings.
A typical nasal cannula system as found in the prior art consists of tubing with a specially formed end portion that inserts into a patient's nose. The end portion is typically secured by tape affixed to the patient's skin. A cannula system is advantageous in that it can deliver a precisely controlled amount of oxygen into a patient's lungs. However, when the patients are children or infants, tape burns on their skin can occur as a result of affixing tape directly to the skin. Further, the nasal cannula is often uncomfortable for an infant or child to wear, and such a patient will often struggle and remove the cannula. To remedy the removal problem, arm boards have often been used. Use of an arm board consists of tying the child's arms to a sturdy length of material so the arm is unable to bend at the elbow and thus the infant or child is thereby unable to detach the cannula.
A typical oxygen mask, as found in the prior art, consists of a bulky mask that a patient wears over his nose and mouth. This type of oxygen delivery system is also problematic, as the mask is prone to removal especially when the patient is an infant or child. In addition, both the cannula and oxygen mask systems may require generous amounts of tubing and tape to adequately and reliably transport the oxygen from a storage source to the patient's respiratory system. As a result, a patient can easily become tangled in the tubing, which can cause injury or even death if the tubing is disconnected and the oxygen flow is interrupted or if the tubing accidentally strangles a patient who is an infant or small child.
Oxygen tents or oxygen hoods are also found in the prior art, and do not suffer the identical disadvantages associated with mask and cannula systems. In a tent or hood type of system, a patient is enclosed in a structure capable of holding in a supply of oxygen. Because the entire environment within the structure is oxygenated, there is no need for tubes or other attachment systems that directly contact the patient. The lack of tubing and attachment systems is an advantage over mask and cannula systems; however, oxygen tents and oxygen hoods are often limited to use in hospital environments, due to the fire and other hazards associated with a structure filled with high concentrations of oxygen. Oxygen tents and hoods also are also disadvantageous because they can suffer from humidity and carbon dioxide buildup, and cannot deliver as precise a mixture of oxygen as a cannula system. Failure to control the levels of oxygen or carbon dioxide around a patient can severely damage a patient's lungs.